GREAT BARRIER REEF UNDER THREAT!!!By Savannah McBride 7B Mrs Pullen

One of the great natural wonders of the world is UNDER THREAT and we need to stop it disappearing! The Great Barrier Reef, an Australian icon covering over 340 thousand square kilometres, home to magnificent reefs and marine life could all disappear by 2030. Around a quarter of the Great Barrier Reef has nearly died from man made issues including global warming, our relentless demand for fossil fuels and unchecked development in the Great Barrier Reef.

Global warming driven by burning fossil fuels contributes to warming temperatures in the oceans which causes coral to bleach. Bleaching is one of biggest issues that is occurring on the Great Barrier Reef which is killing our coral reefs. In the corals tissue there is a living organisms called Algae. When tiny algae in the coral reefs becomes stressed from rising ocean temperatures caused by global warming due to burning fossil fuels, the tiny algae which feed the coral disappear. Soon the coral starts to lose its colour, turns white then slowly dies off. This process is known as “Bleaching”. We need to bring the coral back to life!

One of the main sources for fossil fuels is coal, and large coal mines are located within 200 kilometres of the Great Barrier Reef. In 2015 a new coal loading wharf was built at Abbot Point near Gladstone on the edge of the Reef. Our governments also approved the dredging of our Reefs so they can load millions of tonnes coal onto hundreds of ships that would sail through the Great Barrier Reef.

They managed to dig up millions of cubic meters of seafloor of the Great Barrier Reef and that is enough to fill up four hundred and forty Olympic swimming pools. The dredging process destroyed precious sea grass habitat for dugongs, turtles and dolphins. We have also dredged sand from the Reef to make way for cargo ships. These same governments justify this by calling this economic development. So our reef is under threat by the choices we make. We mine coal which causes global warming and we destroy the reef by dredging to support coal mining. The Great Barrier Reef is a fragile creature that desperately needs our protection. It is the home of 1500 species of fish, 30 species of whales and dolphins and 133 species of sharks and rays. So are we willing to lose all of this wildlife and an Australia’s own great natural wonder?

We need to figure out how to stop pollution, global warming driven by fossil fuels that raise ocean temperatures that bleach our reefs. The Great Barrier Reef could be gone by 2030 unless we act now! So we need to find a way to stop this before the Great Barrier Reef is gone!

In the assignment I had struggled in certain parts and also doing a lot of research. I think my best part that had achieved and finally finished was my editorial. In my editorial I think I was persuasive enough and had five written techniques that I think were important to see. I was proud with my overall result even though I had a few struggles and just had to clear my mind and start over.

What would I do differently if I had the task to do again?

I would probably do many parts of the assignment differently, but the first part I would change is getting organise with all of my research. I think if I found all of my research I would be able to put my written text all together really easily. I would also read all of the parts straight away then keep looking back onto them to see where I am at. I will always try harder next time.

What help did I need?

When I got help I found everything way easier to understand. I asked questions and question with the online page to my family and teachers but in the end I kind of became an expert. One of the most important part of the assignment was the online adobe page. I couldn’t figure out many of the technical parts like getting pictures and my editorial on to the online. Help was needed but I understood after.

The main thing about the art of persuasion that I have learned from this task is to be string and not let yourself down if have done something wrong. I also learned a lot of the technical parts including the Adobe Spark page and annotating the visual and written technique on thing link. When I did this assessment task I had to figure out many different ways to persuade the reader to save the reef.